The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)

Album: Rockihnroll (1981)
Charted: 15
Play Video
  • We had broken up for good
    Just an hour before
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    And now I'm staring at the bodies
    As they're dancing 'cross the floor
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    And then the band slowed the tempo
    And the music gets you down
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    It was the same old song
    With a melancholy sound
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah

    They don't write 'em like that anymore
    They just don't write 'em like that anymore
    We'd been living together for a million years
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    But now it feels so strange out in the atmospheres
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    And then the jukebox plays a song I used to know
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    And now I'm staring at the bodies
    As they're dancing so slow
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, aah

    They don't write 'em like that anymore
    They don't write 'em like that anymore

    Mm, now I wind up staring at an empty glass
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah
    'Cause it's so easy to say
    That she'll forget your past
    Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, aah

    They don't write 'em like that anymore
    No, they just don't write 'em like that anymore
    They don't write 'em like that anymore
    They just don't write 'em like that anymore
    They just don't, no, they don't, no no, uh-uh
    They just don't write 'em like that anymore
    They just don't Writer/s: Gary Phillips, Gregory Stanley Kihn, Stephen Alan Wright
    Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • Tony from NySuch a great song. Yes, simple as he said, but I always lumped it in with New Wave…super energetic.
  • Ken from San Mateo, CaThis was his best album - too bad there are no other songs.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.